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WASHINGTON ' S PENNSYLVANIA NAVY
Good day everyone ••o it ' s a beautiful day in Pennsylvania.
venture was undertaken on Christmas Ni ght , 1776.
I t meant
crossine the Delaware in boats which had to dodge between cakes
Washington ' s Crossing of the Delaware has been told in verse
and story and painting , and it must be told as a Christmastime
story, for it occurred on Christmas Ni ght e
new hat on an old story?
But how to hang a
Well, I think I ' ve found one !
When
Washi.ngton wanted to pull tha t bold stroke early in the War,
he needed boats and he turned for help to--this will come as a
aurprise--the Pennsylvania Navy.
Pennsylvania had its own
Navy before the Congress organized any naval forces.
The f i rst
boat, named the "Experiment 0 was launched i n Philadelphia and
another, the "Bul.1 Dog , " in the same Kensington yards .
Pennsyl-
vania i t self had 14 ships of war before Congress authorized any- and they helped protect the City of Philadelphia from attack by
British warships.
Shortly thereafter, the Marine Corps , as well
as the U.S. Navy, were organized in Philadelphia.
A~ter
Washing-
ton ' s retreat from Long I sland , he was forced to come into
Pennsylvania, as you know, and from the nort h , under General Howe ,
came the Hessian t roops to occupy Trenton across the r iver.
Washing ton put the Del aware between himself and the powerful foe .
Excitement ran high in Ea stern Pennsyl vania, and militi amen,
of floating ice t and i t meant every move had t o be made in secret
in order that the enemy might be taken by surprise.
Three separate
units of the .Army were sent across the river at different points ,
but only one commanded by General Washington made the landing .
Washington used some of the boats of the Pennsylvania Navy ,
small as they were, and was successful in the crossing.
The
Hessians , (in a traditional German Christmas celebration-- war
or no war) --were t a ken by surprise, and Washington ' s men succeeded
in capturing 1000 prisoners.
The captured soldiers later were
paraded through the streets of Philadelphia to hearten the
citizenry at a Christmas t i me which ordinarily might have been
one of the saddest in the continent ' s short h i story .
Later, the
Hessians were used as Ironmongers to a s s ist in the manufacture
of v ital war
materials~
Thus did Washington at Chri stmastime
cross the Delawa.re--Thomas Mifflin (later our first Governor)
wa.s with him i n that ni ght .
Cross the Delaware , they did on the
flotill a--long-boats they mi ght only have been- -of the Pennsylvania
Navy-- fore~unner
of the Unit ed St ates Navy as we know it today .
~hat wasn ' t just an ordi nary rowboat , citizen.
Ass ociators, units of Bucks and Northampton County and others
rallied to swell the ranks of Washington ' s smaller Army .
But
instead of waiting for the enemy t o a t tack his headquart ers at
Newtown--where Colonially- dressed Pennsylvanians still celebrate
Chris tmas Eve--Washington decided to attack Trenton.
This bold
This is Pete Wamba ch .
It ' s a beautiful day in Pennsylvani a.